Origin 68

Years ending in an 8 have brought great social upheaval: 2008 saw the big crash and the election of Obama, while 1998 saw the Little Blue Pill and the erection of Clinton. Harking back to the most tumultuous of 8s, Origin 68 tees.

Origin's the work of two Manchester lads who drew inspiration for their idealism-fueled "wearable art" from 1968's social and musical upheaval, from Vietnam and Civil Rights, to the Beatles' "White Album" -- which created many hippies -- and the formation of Zeppelin and Sabbath, which ultimately destroyed them.

The spectrum of defiance starts with "Paris '68" (representing the nation-shaking strike via France-shaped b&w pics cut through by the date), then enters hyper-modernity with "Human Being" (complete with boxlike instructions for mankind's care), gets comical with a green number where yellow stags' antlers taunt a tiny man by subtly spelling out "Come get me you bastard", and lets it all hang out with the flora-augmented devil hand-sign, "Rockin The Tree World" -- a sign of respect to Nature, which is very Neil Old.

Musically driven designs include the decidedly throwback, tweed-lettered "Retro Electro", a 3D, geometric ode to Purple Rain, and a Primal Scream-channeling job with golden, ornately detailed typography spelling "Higher than the Sun", what Icarus would've been if he'd worn "wings made out of whack".

Recently, Origin's stepped up their game with international collabs like that with Costa Rican artist Anthony Aguero, whose mesmerizing abstract of strange faces and colourful shapes so enchanted the Origin crew, they had "visions of Roger Moore in a milk float with an obese Swiss terrapin who calls himself Charles" -- a reminder that, in 1968, there were also lots of drugs.